Happy Ending
by JustAGirl'xo
Summary: Carla left Michelle and twenty years of friendship without saying so much as a goodbye. When she phones her at the factory the next day, will the two fiery women settle their differences? Oneshot.


S**hort oneshot that I was determined to post tonight and wrote in the back of my car in less than an hour. If it's naff, I'll sort it out sometime this week. Apologies in advance!**

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"Oi. 'Chelle. Quit moping and get on with that flamin' email. I'm the big cheese now Carla's buggered off, remember?" Michelle pressed her lips together, resisting the childish urge to stick up two fingers at Rob's retreating back. Joke or no joke, she resented the fact that Carla had left her inexperienced little brother in charge. In fact, she resented a lot of things regarding the dramatic events of the previous night. She'd watched little Simon returning home with his mum from her bedroom window in relief, though she had been unable to prevent the pang of sadness creating fresh tears in her wide, hazel eyes. 'She's gone...' she'd thought to herself, bitterly, 'She's gone without even saying goodbye, without saying sorry...'. She'd muttered that she needed to pull herself together, forced herself to go straight to bed and tried to banish any thoughts of Carla, As a result she had still, to this minute, yet to shed a proper tear. After all, if Carla had been able to stalk off and hop on a boat without giving her a second thought, why should she? Suddenly, the shrill ringing of the office phone pierced the eerie silence and made Michelle leap from her chair in surprise, all thoughts of her so- called best friend draining from her distracted mind.

"Hello, Underworld?" she sung, having grabbed the receiver within seconds, eager for some human- to-human contact.

"I were hoping you'd be in this morning."

"Oh, were you now?"

"'Ey, no need to sound so pleased to hear from me..." Carla chuckled, leaning back against her bar stool and taking a well-earned sip of her cocktail.

"Let me guess. He's dumped you and you're calling to say you're on the way home. It wouldn't surprise me," Michelle scoffed, tucking the phone under her ear and turning back to her email, "What do you want, Carla? I'm choc-a-block. You know, with all the business you've dumped on us? Or rather, dumped on Rob, who's too busy flexing his muscles to do sod all about it."

"If I didn't know any better, Michelle, I'd say you were bitter."

"Bitter? Who, me? The 'mate' you shunted faster than you could say 'broken knicker elastic'?" "Hey, now, come on. I hardly shunted you, love. You were the one with the loose lips who blabbed to Leanne," Carla reminded her, waving off Peter as he approached her with yet another top-up of drink, "Anyway, I wasn't calling to gloat or to brag about the fact that I'm living the dream on a boat with my boyfriend far away from the land of work and, er, knicker elastic. I just called to say-"

"I love you?"

"No, I'm sorry." Michelle froze for a moment, her brows furrowing in confusion. She sat back in her chair and crossed one leg over the other, concentrating more on her conversation than on her other tasks.

"You're sorry? What for?"

"For putting you in that position in the first place. It were wrong of me. I knew deep down inside that we shouldn't run away, especially when the long-lost Kray twin himself disagreed with me. How is our kid, anyway? Has he burnt the place to the ground, yet?"

"No. No, though he's probably broken six hearts in the space of two hours, including Sean's. Look, I don't get it, why are you sorry? I'm the one who grassed to Leanne. I'm the reason Simon's still in Weatherfield rather than out there with you and your boat and your boyfriend."

"You told the truth. I can't hate you for that..." Carla hesitated, tapping her manicured fingernails on the bar as she thought carefully about how to phrase her next words, "'Chelle, do you remember that trip to Blackpool sixteen years ago?"

"You, me, the lads and our Ryan? Yeah, why?"

"And you remember that you caught me and Liam outside sharing a fag and went tattling to Paul? He went nuts. He didn't speak to us for hours because he was a massive, massive drama queen."

"I was only twenty. All sisters tell tales on their brothers..." Michelle mumbled, a little smile appearing on her lips at the memory of her eldest brother's furious reaction to Carla and Liam's actions. He'd ranted about how they'd never need kids because he was too busy looking after them, and how they were setting an awful example to Ryan.

"Yeah, but I forgave you, didn't I?"

"That were different. This is bigger than a couple of sneaky ciggies. This is Peter's life we're talking about here."

"Alright then... What about Dean, 'ey? And the crash? I remember the day you found out the truth as if it were yesterday. You were livid, and quite rightly so. But in spite of it all, you forgave Liam, didn't you? Eventually?" Carla's heart lurched at the sheer mention of his name, the night that he'd revealed all to her flooding back to her. His face. His horror. His tears. His guilt. She'd despised him at the time though, in the end, she'd developed a kind of respect for him.

"I never forgave Paul, though, did I?"

"You would have done, given the chance. That's what siblings do. They make mistakes, they cock up each other's lives, they put it right again and they're forgiven. It all blows over and becomes nothing more than an inside joke mentioned at every family Christmas."

"We're not siblings, though. There's no unconditional love, Carla, no tight red rope holding us together..."

"Since when has a bit of blood and genetics ever mattered to anyone? You're my sister, through and through. I'd rather have you than my tosspot of a brother, anyway." Michelle couldn't help but laugh at her comment, rolling her eyes as she watched Rob flaunt about in front of the window as if he were king of the world.

"I still can't believe I used to hate you, Car."

"I can. Everyone hated me. I were a flamin' nightmare. But, at the end of the day, you had to put up with me. 'Chelle, we've grown up together. You've got me through some of my darkest moments. You know things about me that even Peter would be horrified to here. I was with you the day you told your mum you were having a baby at fifteen-years-old and I'm still here twenty-odd years later. Nothing's changed. She still treats me as though I were the one who knocked you up."

"Of course she did. It's exactly what you wanted her to think. You didn't really help matters when you snogged me under the mistletoe that Christmas."

"That were for Dean's benefit, not hers," Carla grinned, "You were going through a rough patch so I thought I'd help spice things up a little. See what I mean? I don't have this kind of relationship with anyone else in the world. I mean, yeah, Maria's a nice chick and all, but what memories have we shared, 'ey? Our friendship's fuelled by a load of misery and mutual grief. Me and you, on the other hand, have a history."

"You're starting to scare me, now, you sound remarkably like your brother."

"'Ey. If I come home to find that you and him have been up to any funny business, I won't be a happy bunny. Is that understood?"

"Yes boss," Michelle smiled in reply, a faint blush creeping up in her cheeks at Carla's suggestion. If only she knew what had plagued her thoughts a few days ago, when Rob had reappeared on the scene.

"Glad to hear it. Look, love, I'd better be off, but I'll give you a ring when the boat docks or whatever it is boats do. Mates?"

"Er, no. Sisters."

"Sisters it is. I love you."

"I love you, too..." As Michelle placed the phone back down on the receiver, she gave a content little sigh, thrilled that the story had had a happy ending. The office door creaked open and Rob poked his head around the corner, nodding towards the phone.

"Who were that?"

"Our Carla. Telling me that anymore slacking off on your part will lead to me whipping your backside, and not in the way you're hoping. Now move it, Donovan, we've got an order to finish."


End file.
